“Goats played some of their best tennis of the season!”
update provided by CHS Coach Rothlisberger
The Mountain Goats competed in the 2026 1A State Tournament on Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23. Both Chelan doubles teams made it all the way to the semifinals on Friday! The Goats played some of their best tennis of the season, and measured up well against the best players in the state. In fact, due to the large number of private schools in the 1A classification, the top tennis players in the competition are on par with the top players in 3A and 4A.
In boys doubles, senior Wade Sanderson and sophomore sibling Owen came out of the District 5 tournament qualifier as the #1 seed, and therefore had a first round bye. In the 2nd round, the brothers took down Specht/Davidson of Connell 6-3, 6-1. That put the Sandersons in the semifinals against Ta/Zhu of Bellevue’s Overlake. Wade and Owen played outstanding against the eventual 2nd place finishers, but came up short 2-6, 3-6. In Saturday’s consolation match, the Sandersons had their season come to an end in a heartbreak thriller vs Yin/Busick of Tacoma’s Annie Wright Academy 6-3, 2-6, 5-7 (eventual 4th place finishers). Wade and Owen were the top boys doubles finishers from the public schools in the tournament, so they are PUBLIC SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONS!
In girls doubles, juniors Brooklyn Foyle and Alison Horner faced a 1st round loser-out match, but took care of business vs Dickson/Saunders of Blaine HS 6-2, 6-2. In their 2nd round match, Foyle and Horner dismantled District 4 #1 seeds Romero/Clark of Columbia HS 6-0, 6-2. That win put Brooklyn and Horner in the semifinals against eventual state champions Komatsu/Prisecaru of Overlake. Foyle and Horner competed well, but fell 2-6, 2-6. In Saturday’s consolation match against Sternfeld/Scott of UPrep (Seattle), Foyle and Horner again played inspired tennis but lost 6-7, 2-6. Based on their strong finish, Brooklyn and Alison will return in 2027 with lofty goals!
In boys singles, junior Angel Mendez also faced a loser-out 1st round, but handled Alex Watson of Lakeside 6-1, 6-1. That pit Angel against fellow District 5 member Albin Eskew of Cashmere. Mendez played excellent tennis, but fell 3-6, 1-6. In his 3rd match on Friday, which was once again loser-out, Angel fell short against Austin Peas of Cascade Christian 3-6, 1-6. Angel finished 2nd among all public school boys singles, and will be back for a solid senior season.
The combination of points scored by Angel, Wade and Owen earned them 7th place overall in the team scoring. That made the Goats the top scoring public school squad, so that’s yet another Goats team PUBLIC SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!
We’re proud of our high achieving Chelan tennis athletes and their effort and performance this weekend!
Annual editorial: fifteen of the sixteen individual medals awarded in this year’s 1A state tournament went to Puget Sound region private schools, who draw from a population 5 million. We’re now decades into this public vs private classification debacle, and still no fix by the WIAA. That’s the definition of “dereliction of duty”.
Go Goats!
